22 FEBRUARY 2018

Thomas Treiber, Ring Announcer

By Ron Valderrama : Once in a while you come across one of the good guys of boxing. This week’s article features ring announcer Thomas Treiber.

Have you ever been at a fight or watching one on TV and wondered how the ring announcer landed a job like that? I have to admit I have and there have been a few times that boxing fans have asked a well, which got me to thinking, how do they get those jobs? So I thought why not ask one.

Ring announcer Thomas Trieber, who has been doing this gig for a long time would be the perfect one to ask. Tom has been a ring announcer for a long list of promoters and television, he has announced fights on HBO, Showtime, Strikeforce MMA, and FOX Sports to name a few and is coming off a very successful season with ESPN, which ironically will end their season in Tom’s home town of Hammond Indiana.

Thpmas has also been featured on the hit Reality TV Show "Keeping Up With The Kardashians". I remember years ago when I myself worked some for a promoter in Phoenix and Tom had done a few of the shows. After watching ESPN Friday Night Fights last Friday I decided to call Tom to ask him? "how did it all begin". I figured he would be on a plane headed to his Chicago area home for a little rest and relaxation. I was wrong, he was driving to his next gig. This week’s event which happens to be the season finale on ESPN Friday Night Fights and Tom’s 15th show with ESPN this year will be before his hometown crowd in Hammond.

Tom said the way this hip job all started was when he was in high school. He always wanted to be in broadcast journalism or radio, and in his senior year of high school his break would come. Yes you heard right, his senior year in high school. As emcee for the school talent show, Tom knew one of his friends from school, Marty Jubowski and his brother were professional boxers for an Indianapolis promoter by the name of Fred Berns who was at that time doing several shows at the Hammond Civic Center. Jubowski introduced the two and Berns decided to give Tom a shot at being the ring announcer, not bad for a kid in high school, the rest is history. That was about 20 years ago and a lot has happened since then. Can you imagine starting your career in high school?

It is what it is, a dream job for Tom. “Being a ring announcer has allowed me to travel all over the country as well as all over the world,” said Tom.

It’s pretty safe to say that Treiber has mastered ring announcing and is kept busy just about every weekend doing events. His big break happened in 1997 when he landed a contract to be the ring announcer for Dan Goosen’s America Presents which was featured on "Fight Time" on Fox Network, that was when I first met him. What I like about Thomas is he is still the same guy he was back then, very polite and loves his job. He is fan friendly, always signs autographs and poses for photos with the fans which is a big hit with me and he has a following where ever he goes. Trieber not only is a ring announcer for boxing, he has done numerous MMA events, pro wrestling, boxing play by play and radio to name a few. In January 2010 he was on an episode of the hit reality show "Keeping up with the Kardashians", in which he was the ring announcer for a charity boxing event and said that gave him great exposure. He was also ring announcing for many boxing events in the UK and has gained in popularity there as well, not bad for a guy from Hammond ,Indiana who has had this dream job since high school.